The Primal Hunter

The dryad didn’t seem to register the words immediately but finally reacted after a second.

“Huh?” Dina asked, confused. “I… I could… but why?”

The old man shook his head and smiled. “The four of us have either fought side by side or against each other before. We know about one another. I believe it would be pertinent to get a better idea of your skills, too, before we move on to the later floors so none of us are taken by surprise.”

Dina seemed to consider the words for a moment before nodding resolutely. “Alright.”

“I take it you are all fine with this arrangement?” the Sword Saint asked Jake and the others.

“It is acceptable to me as long as she does not take too long,” the Fallen King said.

“Ree,” Sylphie said as she flew over and landed on top of Jake’s head before quickly sitting down and resting. Apparently, she would need some time to properly digest the fairy queen thing.

“Fine by me,” Jake also shrugged, giving his approval. He didn’t really believe the Monarch of the Skies would give him a good fight, so why not share the love? Besides, he was interested in seeing how well Dina would handle the thing.

While the Monarch of the Skies wasn’t some pinnacle creature, it did feel pretty powerful for its level. Chances are it also had some of that special Floor Boss extra juice that Jake noticed all the other bosses had. The extra juice came in the form of expanded resource pools, specifically their health pools. That should push the Monarch up a level.

The highest-leveled boss so far in Nevermore had been the Lords they had just killed, and all three of those had been level 212. At 225, this did put the Monarch quite a bit above anything else and twenty levels above Dina herself.

Moreover, the environment obviously favored the Monarch of the Skies. Chances are it would turn into a battle in the air, and so far, most of what Dina had shown was summoning vines from the ground, throwing out seeds and growing soldiers, and some occasional enhancement magic.

Jake looked forward to what more she had to show, and he gladly sat back as Dina made her way down towards the large central island where the Monarch of the Skies stood with its eyes closed.

Still floating in the air a good distance away, Dina threw out two small seeds that grew to become spear-like trees. Using some kind of plant telekinesis, she kept them floating there as she took aim toward the Monarch below.

The second she threw them, the Monarch awakened. A whirlwind appeared around it instantly, and Jake and the others backed away to not get involved in the fight. The two trees entered the whirlwind unimpeded, but the ten-meter-tall winged creature still managed to dodge, resulting in the two trees stabbing into the ground, embedding themselves.

With lightning crackling on its wings, the Monarch was about to take to the air as suddenly vines exploded out of both trunks from the thrown trees, seeking to entangle its talon-like feet. It managed to avoid the roots with one of its feet, but the other was caught as Dina followed up her attack.

The ground below the Monarch erupted as hundreds of thorn-filled vines flew toward it. The Floor Boss reacted quickly and held out its hand as a lightning bolt descended from the thunderclouds above. The lightning hit the Monarch as its entire body exploded, getting rid of the vines and allowing it to get airborne. Moreover, the lightning had delivered with it a large white halberd that the boss now wielded.

“It is quite powerful,” the Sword Saint commented.

“Yeah, not bad,” Jake did agree. The fact that it was effectively fighting within a giant formation that assisted it sure did wonders. However, its opponent wasn’t simple either.

Dina seemed almost annoyed at it for getting out of her attack. Rather than retreat, she chose to engage the Monarch of the Skies directly as the two clashed in mid-air.

That is when Jake realized something he hadn’t even considered before. Dina was a druid that specialized in manipulating plants, but she was also a dryad. A part human, part plant lifeform. An obvious weakness of any kind of manipulation-based class would always be a lack of whatever they specialized in manipulating. They would try to shore up this weakness by being able to summon some of their element of choice, but this obviously came with some drawbacks and a highly increased resource consumption.

But what happens when bringing the element means bringing your own body? Well, you would have someone like Dina.

The second before she clashed with the Monarch, a sea of vines grew from her arm and speared forward toward the boss. Surprised, the Monarch stopped in its tracks and tried to retreat out of range from the wall of spiky vines, but before it could, the vines were shot out like spears, a few of them managing to stab it in its arms and legs. Sadly for Dina, the breastplate worn by the Monarch meant it avoided most of the damage, but the winner of this brief exchange was still clear.

Before the Monarch could even properly recover, Dina pulled out a staff and pointed it towards it. Jake expected to see her summon root spears or something, but instead, the staff began to glow a green light before it released what looked like a green bolt of lightning.

It was too fast for the Monarch to dodge as it was hit in the shoulder. At the spot where it had been hit, the feathers began to fall off as the flesh began to rot within seconds. Jake’s eyes opened wide as she released several more green bolts of lightning while he tried to analyze the nature of her attack.

Meanwhile, the Monarch retaliated with its own lightning, the two magics clashing in mid-air and exploding upon impact in flashes of white and green. After the Monarch failed to block a bolt and found itself hit once more, Jake finally got an understanding.

Willpower-based attack.

This was… rare, but Jake had read about it. What Dina did was release bolts of will-empowered life energy into her foe, that rather than nurture life, carried with it intent to self-destruct. Which it promptly did, resulting in rot setting in and spreading to the surrounding flesh. It was an incredibly insidious type of attack and one that was quite difficult to protect against.

However, in this instance, the Monarch of the Skies did have an advantage due to its significantly increased health pool, which resulted in the wounds healing quickly. Dina also realized this as she stopped her attack and changed her stance. The staff began to warp as a large blade grew out of its end, transforming it into a scythe.

The two of them flew towards each other once more, and it was clear this fight would transform into a melee battle, which did make Jake a bit worried, considering Dina was mostly a caster. However, it appeared he had once more underestimated her.

Now, there was someone Jake had heard mentioned quite a few times. Nature’s Attendant had mentioned this being, and so had Dina, but Jake didn’t believe they had ever seen it. Jake was naturally talking about the mysterious Bobo, the Guardian of Dina. He had hoped to see this Guardian during this fight, not realizing… Bobo had been in front of their eyes this entire time.

The large robe that usually covered Dina’s entire body was torn to shreds as four spider-like limbs of wood speared out and penetrated through the breastplate of the Monarch. The halberd that had been aimed at Dina was also stopped as several branches grew out and took the blow. This allowed Dina to properly close in, and swinging her scythe, she sent out a crescent wave of green energy that tore into the Monarch, leaving a deep cut of rotting flesh.

Jake could finally see what had been hidden beneath her thick robe and saw a wooden suit of armor covering her entire chest, abdomen, and thighs, stopping just above her knees. It extended nearly all the way to her neck, exposing only her head, arms, and lower legs. It wasn’t truly a piece of armor either… it was alive.

Despite being pushed back, the Monarch of the Skies counterattacked as it raised its halberd, making a giant bolt of lightning strike down at Dina. Before it could even hit, a spear of wood was shot out from her armor to absorb the blow, allowing Dina to pursue her foe.

By now, the Monarch seemed to realize it was in a bad position as blood dripped from its chest from several barrel-sized holes, and a large part of its chest was rotting away from the scythe hit earlier. It tried to back away, but Dina pursued with impressive speed as she continued attacking with ranged attacks in the form of wooden spears. Being hit by one of these also wasn’t as simple as just taking a hit.

Every wooden spear that penetrated its body bloomed into more spear-like vines that dug into the flesh of the Monarch, and as it kept trying to retreat, Jake saw something frightening. Leaves began to sprout beneath the breastplate of the Monarch as he realized that the hit from her armor – Bobo – had done more than just stabbing: it had planted seeds.

While Jake used poison, Dina did something similar but far scarier in Jake’s mind. With her attacks, she implanted almost microscopic seeds that took hold inside the body of her foe. Jake hadn’t even noticed it before Dina chose to activate the many seeds she had planted within the Monarch, and damn, did it look scary as thorns and vines began growing out from beneath the feathers of the Monarch as the giant creature screeched in pain.

The Monarch of the Skies still refused to give up as it screeched louder than ever before. The thunderclouds above began to gather as a giant pillar of pure lightning descended, bathing the Monarch in energy and pushing Dina back. Once the light faded, its form was once more revealed, the vines and whatnot burned away, and its entire body crackled with lightning.

Floating above the large island, it had been summoned on, it didn’t notice what was about to hit it before it was too late.

Below, the entire island exploded as thousands of meter-thick vines surged upwards, grasping the form of the Monarch. The vines were instantly singed by the powerful lightning, but ten more came to take their place whenever one broke.

Seeing this, Jake realized where they had come from. Those two trees she had fired at the beginning had launched seeds into the island, and vines had slowly grown within while she fought the Monarch. Then, during the fight, she eventually pushed the Monarch back to float just above the island, where her trap had fully germinated and was ready to be activated.

Immobilized, the Monarch of the Skies tried to free itself and called down a lightning storm as a whirlwind surrounded it, cutting away at the vines, but Dina rushed forward unimpeded as her wood armor grew wooden shields to block anything headed her way. The Monarch let out a loud screech as Dina transformed her arm into a long lance of wood that penetrated into its chest. Its screech slowly turned into a scream as Dina’s body burned with energy as the vine pulsed with power.

Then, a hundred vines erupted from within the Monarch of the Skies, penetrating through its skin and even its beaked mouth, effectively exploding it from within.

Achievement earned: Defeat the Monarch of the Skies. 50 Nevermore Points awarded.

Achievement earned: Defeat the Monarch of the Skies within half an hour of summoning. 25 Nevermore Points awarded.

“Ree,” Sylphie commented.

“Yep,” Jake agreed with a nod. “Definitely scary.”

“Nature magic is notoriously weak offensively, but I must say I find myself impressed by her ability to make use of her skills so effectively,” the Fallen King said with admiration.

“Makes me wonder if her being a support type is even true,” Jake smiled.

“I only look more forward to her support skills after seeing her personal combat prowess,” the Sword Saint said with a nod.

The dryad in question still floated in the air and looked at the dead Monarch of the Skies as the vines growing from its body began to bloom flowers of various colors. She nodded and looked proud of herself as she flew back towards them.

“I did it,” she said with a smile as she stopped in front of the Sword Saint.

“That you did,” the old man said with his grandfatherly smile. He then looked at her wooden armor with a raised eyebrow. “And am I right to assume that is Bobo?”

“Oh, yeah,” Dina nodded as she looked proudly at her armor. Still looking down at it, she nodded a few more times before looking up. “Bobo also says hello to you all. He is a bit shy, though.”

“I see, I see,” the Sword Saint nodded. “Well, Bobo sure also did a nice job. Tell him that for me, okay?”

Dina smiled and gently hit her armor. “Come on, Bobo… be polite.”

Jake also stood off to the side and smiled. Dina was naturally the only one who could hear her-

“Thank… you…”

A deep rumbling voice came from Dina’s chest area as it moved slightly. Jake and everyone stared, surprised for a moment, as Dina looked incredibly proud as she patted the armor gently with a proud look on her face.

“Bobo is full of surprises, it seems,” the old man said, being the first to properly collect his thoughts. “If I may ask… is he permanently attached to you, or can he also act more independently?”

“He can, but he doesn’t like to… we are best together,” Dina answered. “Grandfather gave Bobo to me when I was still small, and he has always been with me. Keeping me safe and helping me fight. He is my best friend.”

Bobo seemed to move a bit at her calling him her best friend, making Dina smile even more.

Jake also couldn’t help but smile at the girl and her scary wooden armor able to grow large thorns capable of tearing nearly anything apart while also offering insane defenses. It was like having an automatic defense system, and from how they fought, Dina’s style was fully capable of taking advantage of Bobo.

Dina’s offensive prowess was also pretty darn impressive. As the King had mentioned, then nature affinity casters tended to be quite weak offensively and in direct combat. Especially so when not in an environment beneficial to them. Dina managed to overcome the weakness of requiring a good environment by using her own body and even Bobo. She could grow plants of all kinds from her own body, and she was the perfect conduit for her own nature mana. Further amplified by her Bloodline… she was indeed a true monster.

The dead Monarch of the Skies was definitely proof she could fend for herself and didn’t need babysitting even on later floors. He still wondered how she would fight something like an elemental that didn’t have any life energy and didn’t care about physical attacks, but he had a feeling she had tools to handle those too. In fact, he got a feeling she had a lot more to show them over the next many years as they dove further and further into Nevermore.

For now, it was time to move on. While still having small talk, they made their way to the gateway and passed through as they got their 50 Nevermore Points for passing the floor and some extra for achievements. All in all, counting all the achievements and the extra reward from slaying the Monarch of the Skies, this floor had yielded by far the most Nevermore Points.

From one floor, they had gotten 231, which was nearly a doubling of the 234 they had before.

Current Nevermore Points: 465

Jake was satisfied as they stood in the in-between room and had one more gateway available than before. One leading to the first intermitting city layer of Nevermore. After opening another disappointing lockbox of loot, there was no need to delay, as they all promptly moved on and entered the first city.